At the present time, organizations from many different industries generate valuable information used for business purposes. Local business data is but one example. For example: travel agents use information about hotels and also about businesses that cater to tourists to help travellers plan vacations; banks and other financial institutions use information about local businesses to help focus their marketing activities; and mobile search applications need the latest contact information about each business so that their users may navigate accurately to locations offering specific products or services.
Generally speaking each organization has unique business needs that require them to use data from different sources, or generate data on their own (sometimes because of gaps in available third party information). Managing and merging this information can be a significant burden for organizations, usually requiring significant numbers of employees skilled in data management, and a technology and database infrastructure, for processing and managing this information.
A significant problem is that, in many domains, information becomes less accurate over time. For example in connection with business directory information, businesses close, open or change their profile details, resulting in information becoming stale. Approximately 2% or 300,000 businesses open or close every month in the United States, while 10% or 1.5 million change their profile information. Staying up-to-date on a global basis requires extensive resources and still information is out of date. To maintain the value of their local business information, it is important for these organizations to keep their information updated and accurate. There is also a need for more efficient ways to find and fix errors, and to enhance their data from other sources.
As a related problem, with organizations managing their local data independently, fragmentation can develop as each organization develops its own formats and standards. Differing standards and formats makes it become difficult to distribute information to all simultaneously. This prevents creators of valuable content relating to local business (like photos, videos, review, etc.), or the local businesses themselves from broadcasting their content and information to these organizations. For example, it is currently difficult for a media company to distribute its photos and videos of hotels to all travel agencies, or for local businesses to distribute their accurate contact information and product inventory to all mobile search applications.
A solution is needed that addresses the shortcomings of the prior art.